TulaneLSU's review of Chuck E. Cheese Pizza

Dear Friends,

October of 1980 is remembered by most Americans as the month of the only ever Reagan versus Carter debate. It was the most watched Presidential debate until 2016, and played a large role in Reagan trouncing Carter in the election just one week later. Some may remember the month for the Ali versus Holmes fight. But Uncle tells me it is most notable in New Orleans as the month when he started seeing advertisements in the Times Picayune classified section for an unknown pizza company out of Topeka, Kansas of all places.

Uncle told me the story on this weekend’s trip. “It was called Showbiz Pizza Place. They ran ads for months, clogging up our classified ads. They wanted managers, technicians, cooks, computer programmers. You name it. They opened at 7000 Veterans in the deep heart of Metairie in that old shopping center where GEX was.”

I asked, “GEX? What was that?”

“GEX was a forerunner of Sam’s. It was a members only department store, but its members came from the military and certain labor unions. Not many people remember it because so few people could enter, but they had a butcher, groceries, clothes, suits, jewelry, sporting goods. It closed in 1976 and became an Appliance Warehouse for a year before being bought by K-Mart.”

“When K-Mart opened in 1979, it brought a wave of development in that complex. Security Sporting Goods initially had a single store on Carrollton Avenue, near where Costco is. It was there that your grandfather bought me my first baseball glove. In ‘79, Security opened a huge store next to the K-Mart. I can still smell the chlorine from the above ground pool it had inside, and good thing because the crickets in there would have otherwise made a terrible stench.”

“By 1981, both K&B and a Showbiz Pizza had opened in that shopping center. You do not remember this, but Showbiz had opened its first Metro branch on General DeGaulle on the Westbank just three months earlier. It was one of the few times the Westbank beat the Eastbank to the punch.”

Showbiz Pizza was among the first non-fast food restaurant chains to make inroads into the New Orleans Metro, and its success paved the way for many others. Its invasion into our fair lands was part of a national expansion of the brand, which started as a brainchild of Nolan Bushnell, creator of Atari. Disney had inspired Bushnell, and he wanted to create a chain of pizzerias that had Disney-like animatronics. After selling Atari to Warner Communications in 1976, Bushnell purchased the rights to open the entertainment pizzerias back from Warner and thus started Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time. Its mascot was a rat, Chuck and one of Chuck’s sidekicks was Pasqually, an Italian chef whose kitchen survives today.



Three years later, Bob Broch, the famed Holiday Inn magnate of Kansas, bought rights from Bushnell to open up these themed pizzerias in the Midwest and South. Broch called it Showbiz Pizza Place. Uncle’s memories of the marketing flood in the early 80s by Showbiz Pizza fit into this story.

Showbiz and Chuck E Cheese battled each other the first few years of the 80s, both in New Orleans and nationally. Two Chuck E Cheese Pizza Times opened in the Metro, one on Airline near Old Metairie and the other in Chalmette on Judge Perez before merging. Although many suggestions have been offered as to why Showbiz conquered Chuck E Cheese, it is generally agreed that the band Billy Bob and the Rock-Afire Explosion was the primary one.





Billy Bob was always supposed to be the main act, but within a few months of his debut, it was Fatz Geronimo who won the hearts of the people. Fatz, Uncle tells me, was born in Audubon Zoo and was a candidate to become President of the World. After some research, I can confirm that, in fact, Fatz was born at Audubon Zoo. Though a native, Fatz always scared me, to the extent that no one in the audience ever tried to hit on the looker, Mitzy Mozzarella.



Mother tells me it was 1989 when I first visited the Showbiz Pizza in Metairie. It was for Ralph’s fifth birthday party. I remember entering through a separate door – a semicircular-hole like door made for children. While others played games, I ate and watched the Rock-Afire Explosion. By the next year, for Ralph’s sixth birthday party, the theming had all changed to Chuck E Cheese. Gone were my favorite characters, so I was left to play skee-ball, at which I excelled. Mother said she had never seen a better player.

The late ‘80s and early 90’s were the years of children’s entertainment in the New Orleans Metro. Arcades throughout the city were packed. Batters’ Box and Slick Track and other go-cart facilities had wait lines. Fun Works was buzzing. Rummey was busy playing at Putt Putt. I was tempting the young lasses with my moves at Skate Country. Had Celebration Station not opened in 1992, I think Kid’s Playhouse, which had a less than memorable buffet, might have been a smashing success.

Yes, it is hard to argue that the children of the late 80s and 90s did not have some of the most privileged and exciting upbringing of anyone. There was the outdoor freedom of the ‘80s with the technology of the 90s without the sloth of social media. Showbiz and Chuck E Cheese were just a feather in that generation’s cap. But I had not been to one in decades until this weekend.

As many of you know, some of you from visiting us there, Uncle has a condo at Portofino on Pensacola Beach. This weekend, Uncle invited me to go fishing with him out of Destin. I agreed, and Mother and I headed to Portofino Friday evening. While traveling, Mother asked me what I wanted to eat. How certain memories randomly pop into my head, I will never know, but I blurted out the first restaurant that came to mind, “Showbiz Pizza!”

Mother laughed. I laughed. And then I said, “Mother, I have not thought of Showbiz since Ralph’s birthday party many years ago. But I sure could use some Showbiz or Chuck E Cheese pizza right now.”

“Well, are there any on the way?” she asked.

After using Google, I found one in Pensacola. Mother did not want to join me, so she let me use her credit card and said as she dropped me at the restaurant, “Get a taxi to Uncle’s condo. I love you.”

You might expect me to express some sadness at leaving Mother that night, but I quickly got out of her car and ran to the front door of Chuck E Cheese. The doorman and then the cashier both tried to sell me on getting a summer pass, explaining how it would save me money. Their math and sales pitch were not convincing. I did order a pizza, cheesesticks, and a one hour unlimited playpass. The total was $76.



I walked around the restaurant, taking in the smells. The first smell one experiences there is that of a dirty diaper. After acclimating to that smell, then one begins to smell the background food smells, which are quite pleasant. The grounds were surprisingly clean otherwise. There was a birthday party sitting at a long table. After a few minutes I realized I was probably the only adult there by himself. But that would not deter me from having a good time.